I also tested wit Version 12.1.0.1. The VS tools worked, but this version was not working with our tnsnames.ora which is referenced via ifile. I have installed this driver version before the 11.2.0.3.20. Eventually this was the problem. Also I have reinstalled the 12.1.0.1 version again and no datasources and tools are available.

Thanks for reply. Yes I did install this exact version. The funny thing is that I can open a project in VS2012 (created in VS2010 with the 11.2.0.3 version on an other box) on my machine and the VS2012 EF designer opens correctly when double clicking on the .edmx file. The Oracle Client data providers however do not show up ( and therefore I cannot recreate the model from the database). Also the About dialog does not contain the VS Oracle tools. Build and run however works, as well deployment to an IIS/R2008 server where 11.2.0.3 is installed.

The ifile is a parameter in the tnsnames.ora file to reference other tnsnames.ora. That is the way we reference the company wide tnsnames.ora on a shared drive. This does not work in the 12.1 ODT version.

IMHO the uninstalling of the 12.1 and reinstalling 11.2.0.3 somehow screwed up the registry or whatever. I am quite familiar with VS and also the command line switches, I did all I could (/resetsettings, etc), but nothing helped. Also a repair of VS2012 did not help. After the not working 11.2.0.3 I tried to reinstall 12.1, but with no success. I always did an uninstall and a reboot in between each installation/uninstallation.

Another question, this installer looks a bit outdated, did Oracle ever think about using newer ways of providing such an installer ( NuGet, and/or vsix) ?